SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

that they received at their hands in the years preceding the invasion. Exhibit: The exhibit organized for this gathering dealt with the subject of the Coptic Bible. The main display was a collection of sample prints from the Society's scanned images library, produced from the its 35mm microfilm collection. These images featured a sample print of nearly every extant book of the bible in the Bohairic Old Testament as well as those of the New Testament from both Bohairic and Sahidic. More precisely, there were 29 images from Old Testament manuscripts, and 59 from New Testament ones. Sahidic portion was 6 from the Old Testament and 26 from the New Testament. All the Sahidic prints are from the Hamuli Texts, preserved in the New York Pierpont Morgan Library. These images revealed the different format that these biblical manuscripts appeared in, and how the Arabic column progressed from a parallel marginal text to Introduction: Copts, or members of the National Orthodox Church of Egypt, have steadily streamed out of Egypt to the lands of immigration as far back as the mid 1950s. The US was one of these countries along with Canada and Australia. The 1952 Nasser Revolution, which eventually converted Egypt from a monarchy to Republic, contributed significantly to this phenomenon. However, it was not until the deep recession that Egypt suffered in the aftermath of its defeat in the 1967 war with Israel, that greater numbers of Copts started to immigrate. The heavily professional and rather young group became the true foundation of the Coptic Community abroad and they were the ones that pushed for the establishment of Coptic Churches in their new homeland. These new churches were established first to provide a home away from home atmosphere for these home-sick young immigrants. The priests,

its current one-third size column that is common in the late manuscripts. Other items displayed were publications of all available Old and New Testament texts in the known Coptic dialects; Bohairic, Sahidic, Akhmimic, Lycopolitan, Fayumic, and Middle Egyptian. These publications were authored by Prof. Böhlig, Dr. G. Gabra, Rev. G. Horner, Prof. R. Kasser, Fr. H. Quecke, Sir. H. Thompson, Arch. H. Tattam, and others. Organizers: This event was organized by the staff and students of the St. Shenouda Center for Coptic Studies. Publications of the Proceedings: There is no formal plan to publish the proceedings in a separate publication. However, selected papers will be included in this or future issues of the Newsletter. who were at the start exclusively brought from Coptic Churches in Egypt, became the family head for the single among them as well as the smaller families that were detached from their roots in Egypt. Services mirrored those in Egypt in form and language, i.e. predominantly Arabic with some Coptic. It was felt at the time that English would eventually replace the Arabic, and the Coptic, which was weak in Egypt, would be strengthened. Unfortunately English was not able to completely uproot the Arabic, because of the constant influx of Copts immigrating from Egypt. So it turned to the defenseless Coptic and nearly uprooted it altogether. One of the best illustrative examples for this phenomenon is the liturgical biblical readings. An attempt will be made in this article to acquaint the readers with this system of readings and how it was used to aid these liturgical services in attaining

The Tragic Decline of the Coptic Language in the Coptic Churches in America (1) 1. Decline in Liturgical Biblical Readings (by Hany N. Takla)

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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